Hi--Chip's my pen name for this website where I talk about my experiences learning how to play poker. I used to have something in here about how I'm new and not very good, but I think I've actually improved a little bit over the last year. No need to be blatantly humble.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Phil Hellmuth Article - LA Weekly

I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to post about Phil Hellmuth every day. I really am. I might even make multiple posts about Phil Hellmuth.

It was a great article, and I'll summarize 9 things I learned about Phil Hellmuth from this article:

1- Phil Hellmuth is 6' 6" tall. Now, I'm I'm 6'3" myself, and I probably figured Hellmuth for a tall guy, but it sounds like he's just going to tower over me if and when I ever get to meet him.

2- One of Phil's nicknames is "The Madison Kid".

3- Phil Hellmuth was the youngest ever winner of the World Series of Poker in 1989 at age 24. He has 9 World Series of Poker bracelets, and there are only 2 people in the world ahead of him with 10 bracelets.

4- John Bonetti was quoted as saying, "Phil wants to win that 10th bracelet so bad because if he puts them all together they might fit around his swollen head."

5- Phil Hellmuth has an ownership stake in Cardplayer magazine. (I knew he wrote for them; I didn't know that he was a part-owner.)

6- Mike Sexton used to think Phil Hellmuth was the best no limit player in the world, but that he's so focused on the business side of things that his game is slipping.

7- According to "the Bad Boy of Poker", Phil's been married for 16 years and has never cheated on his wife.

8- One of the participants at Hellmuth's Fantasy Poker Camp called him the Tony Robbins of poker. Since Tony Robbins is abnormally tall and successful too, this is possibly pretty accurate.

9- Hellmuth's decision to drop out of college and become a professional poker player created a huge rift between him and his father, who is an intellectual and was at that time an associate dean at the university. His father first watched his son play when he won the WSOP, and when Hellmuth won, he immediately asked, "Where's my dad?"

Phil had promised to buy his dad a brand new car if he won the WSOP, and he did. His dad is still driving the car.

That's it for the Phil Hellmuth love today. I'm going to post about something else shortly.